When you come across the song lyrics in this chapter, make sure you read them. They're important.
Disclaimer: I don't own this.
Chapter 39: Enter the Man
Draco watched panicked –for a moment he even forgot about the clone standing behind him– as the cave monster snuck up behind Ginny, whose eyes were closed serenely. He shouted out a warning, but Ginny barely had time to open her eyes before the monster raised one of its large fists and with one quick thwack, caused Ginny to crumple in an unconscious heap to the ground.
His worry for Ginny had just set in when Draco was slammed against the wall of the attic with one of the creature's fists tight around his neck. Draco groped against the hand but it was no use; it was far stronger than anything Draco had ever experienced.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his look-a-like go through a transformation. His frame elongated several inches taller, his shoulders and face narrowed, and his hair turned from silver-blond to a light brown. Once the morphing was done, a Draco-clone no longer stood in the room. Draco was faced with Oleaney Juriac.
"You," Draco choked out, glaring at his professor. The fist around his neck tightened threateningly and Draco's eyes jerked towards the eerie blue ones staring down at him; the foul smell coming from the creature's mouth threatened to overwhelm Draco.
"Carl," spoke Juriac calmly, dusting off his robe. "Let him go."
Carl? Draco thought, staring wide-eyed at the monster before him. It has a name? After a moment, the creature –Carl– grudgingly let him go. Draco glared at him, resisting the urge to rub his neck, and moved towards Ginny.
Glancing uneasily at Juriac, he bent over her and felt for a pulse, though he felt reasonably sure that she was alive; his worry was relieved as he felt a strong pulse. Draco knew that at the moment, he couldn't help Ginny. His prime concern was getting the both of them out of there safely, and to do that, he needed to concentrate on the two figures before him, one a man and the other anything but.
So, leaving Ginny to lie on the floor, he stood and grasped his wand, pointing it first at Juriac and then at Carl.
"What is this?" Draco snapped. "So you're the one who took those kids, Harding, Johnson, Longbottom, and Parkinson, right?"
Juriac sighed at Draco irritably and shifted his feet.
"Yes, yes, yes," Juriac said. "But what does it matter? I returned them all. None of them were hurt."
"Where are we?" Draco countered, not missing a beat.
"Hogsmede," replied Juriac as calmly as if they were two friends discussing Quidditch. If Draco wasn't mistaken, he actually seemed pleased.
"And what is…that?" Draco asked, tipping his wand towards the creature.
"That is Carl," Juriac said. "He's my Cusderm." He nodded happily.
Draco blinked. What in the world was a Cusderm? "Your what?"
"My Cusderm," Juriac repeated. "My own skin. I created him myself. Very old spell. But I won't explain it to you now. It would take too long and I am afraid that I should be going."
Draco, his wand still pointing at Carl, watched as Juriac walked past him, skipped over Ginny, and headed towards a desk. He opened a drawer, pulled out a bag, and started tossing in books. Draco glanced over his shoulder at the man, then back at Carl, and, deciding that he could leave the creature for a moment, turned around to face Juriac.
"You're not going anywhere," Draco stated. "We're taking you back to Dumbledore and he can deal with you…call aurors, send you to Azkaban, whatever. But you will never be here to take another student again."
Oleaney turned to look at Draco, an eyebrow raised. "I'm not going anywhere." For once, Draco heard a bit of the professor he knew surface in his voice; he was talking in the voice he used when one of his students misbehaved. "You and the girl –Ginny, I think you said her name was– have seen too much. Carl, block the door."
Draco whirled around and saw Carl step in front of the doorway and stare menacingly back at Draco, who stepped closer to Ginny. "I can't have you going back to Albus like you say you will," Juriac said, setting down his bag and looking at Draco. "I shall have to erase your memories."
Draco pointed his wand straight at Juriac. "Don't even think about it," he said quietly.
"Mr. Malfoy, you always were one of a kind. I expected great things from you." Juriac shook his head sadly. "I should have guessed that you were my trespasser."
"You knew about us?" Draco asked.
"Of course I did," Juriac grinned. "Carl reported to me right after you and Ginny first came down here. He chased you off, which were the orders I had given him. But you came back. Then he caught the girl and tried to bring her back to me. I suppose you were the one to rescue her."
"Yeah," Draco said defiantly. "I did."
Juriac cocked his head to the side, his eyebrows creasing. "It was romantic, was it not?"
Draco frowned. "Excuse me?" he asked sarcastically.
"Your rescuing Ginny, of course!" Juriac replied, now grinning. "I remember now." He leaned comfortably against his desk. "On one of the first days here you tried to curse her and I told you that if you wanted get a girl's attention, you should try something less drastic. I see you took my advice! Yes, girls seem to like romantic things such as being rescued. I wonder if she didn't come down here for that sole purpose, knowing you would come after her. Ah, well." He suddenly leapt back over Ginny and down an isle of tables, leaving a bewildered Draco to watch.
Draco knew that his teacher was probably a tad crazy, but this was down right strange. Juriac stopped when he saw an overturned cauldron and glanced suspiciously back at Draco, then down at Ginny, before he warily looked back at Draco.
"Did you knock over this cauldron?" he asked, pointing to said cauldron.
"No." Draco shook his head.
"Oh," Juriac said, frowning as he looked down at Ginny. Draco too looked at her and had an uneasy feeling about what had happened to her before he had shown up in this attic.
"Why?" Draco asked as Juriac continued walking towards the end of a table. "What potion was that?"
Juriac picked up a black box and then walked back towards the desk; he smiled happily as he skipped over Ginny's prone form once more. "It was one of my own inventions," Juriac replied. "I suppose you'll find out soon enough what it does. That is, if she drank it, which I hope she didn't. I never did think the Weasleys were so dumb as to drink an unknown potion. If they are, then I didn't do a very good job as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, did I?"
Draco didn't feel he needed to answer that question. This was certainly not how Draco was envisioning this confrontation to go. He had pictured a fight maybe, most likely just finding evidence, but not this. It seemed as if Oleaney wasn't even mad at them, more like amused or even proud that somebody had discovered him. And Draco didn't feel much like cursing his teacher at the moment, mainly for the reason that Juriac wasn't acting aggressive at all regardless of his talk of erasing their memories. Draco was fully prepared to attack him, but he felt certain that if he attacked Juriac, there would be nothing stopping Carl from attacking Draco himself.
"She thinks you're dead, you know," Draco said.
"Who does?" Juriac asked absent-mindedly, not even turning around from his desk to look at Draco.
"Your sister."
This got Juriac's attention, though his reaction wasn't what Draco expected. He turned around to look at Draco, thoroughly bewildered. "My sister?" he asked. "Dear boy, you must have lost it. I don't have a sister."
Draco stared back at him, equally stunned. "Of course you do," he replied, hoping he didn't sound too uncertain. "I met her myself."
Juriac shook his head. "Well that's impossible because I don't have a sister. I don't have any family at all."
Now that was just ridiculous. "Oh?" Draco asked. "Then where are your parents? Where are you from?"
Juriac half turned towards Draco and grinned while saying dreamily, "I'm from under the sea."
Draco's eyebrows shot up but he didn't say anything. Yes, there was definitely something seriously wrong with this guy. Draco glanced backwards and saw that Carl was still in his position in front of the door.
Then Oleaney whipped around, his wand pointed at Draco. Draco raised his wand again, prepared to block any attack that came at him. However, neither man got a chance to utter a curse, for a low moan came from the ground beside Draco and they both looked down. Ginny was stirring.
She sat up, wincing as she did so, and brought a hand to the back of her head. She was facing the door and when she saw Carl, she blanched and scooted backwards, brushing into Draco's legs. Then she looked up, glanced over her shoulder and saw Juriac, and looked back to Draco with a relieved sigh.
As she slowly rose to her feet, she pulled out her wand, though she didn't point it anywhere. "What going on?" she hissed in his ear, looking warily at Juriac. "He is the bad guy, right?"
"Right," Draco replied. Ginny nodded and then pointed her wand at Juriac, though Draco saw her hand tremble as she did so; he wondered uneasily if she had been seriously hurt when Carl had hit her.
"Hello," Juriac said, smiling warmly at Ginny. "Sorry Carl hit you so hard. But it was necessary."
Ginny glanced incredulously at Draco as if to ask if Juriac was serious. Draco just shrugged. "I'm afraid," continued Juriac, "that the two of you must be obliviated. But don't worry. I won't take away anymore of your memories than the ones you have of me, Carl, the tunnel, everything. You'll wake up back in Hogwarts as if none of this happened, so there's no need to worry."
No need to worry? thought Draco unbelievingly. Knowing that an attack was coming soon, he watched carefully. As soon as Juriac opened his mouth and started to utter the spell that would take away his memory, Draco cried "Stupefy!"
However, Juriac was faster than Draco had thought. He dodged the spell and ducked behind his desk as Ginny started firing spells at him. Draco glanced back at Carl, but to his astonishment, he saw the creature standing as calmly as before.
"Draco, look out!" Ginny cried quickly, and Draco turned back around just in time to catch a body-bind curse full in the chest. His arms snapped to his side and he fell backwards stiffly to the ground; if he had been able to, he would have winced as his head hit the floor. The only part of his body that still worked was his eyes, which saw Ginny dart aside, narrowly missing a curse. Draco saw her glance at him wildly, but she was too busy blocking spells from Juriac and shouting her own to take the curse off of him.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted Juriac.
"Protego!" Ginny countered, and Juriac's spell bounced harmlessly off her shield, which then disappeared. Before Ginny could arm herself again, she was hit in the stomach with a curse that caused her to flip backwards through the air. Draco watched her knock into one of the tables, sending bowls of doxy eggs, asphodel root, and wormwood tumbling to the ground.
Draco held his breath. Ginny wasn't moving. The table had fallen over on top of her; there were potion ingredients everywhere. But all Draco cared about was that his Ginny wasn't moving. Anger gripped him, anger at this man who was supposed to be his teacher. Draco wanted to go and pummel him. Curses were too good for him. Draco wanted the satisfaction of personally making him bleed.
Draco struggled against the curse holding him still. If he could only get free…then he saw Juriac stand from behind the desk and make his way towards Ginny. Draco willed something to move, a finger, a toe. His wand was still in his hand. It was as infuriating as it was embarrassing knowing that he had gotten beaten so quickly. If only he hadn't turned to look at that stupid Carl!
Watching Juriac get closer and closer to Ginny, Draco felt his heart start to pound. But then he saw Ginny's hand tighten around her wand, still lying face down. In one swift movement, she raised herself partway and pointed her wand at Juriac, taking him by surprise.
"Stupefy!" Ginny cried, and was rewarded by the body of her professor falling unconscious to the floor.
Without even glancing at Juriac, she made her way to Draco and took the curse off of him. "Are you alright?" Draco asked when he felt his limbs relax from the curse. He stood quickly and grabbed Ginny by the shoulders, looking worriedly into her eyes. Ginny nodded at him.
"Yeah, I'm good," she said. She glanced past Draco towards the door. "It's gone," she said, startled.
"Carl?" Draco asked, turning around.
Ginny glanced at him. "Carl?" she repeated.
"That's what Juriac called him," Draco said, shrugging his shoulders. "Where did he go?"
"I don't know," Ginny replied. "But let's not waste time with him. Let's just get Juriac back to the school."
Draco nodded and turned around. He looked down at Juriac lying on the floor. Grabbing and handing his teacher's wand to Ginny, he pocketed his own. He got down on his knees and grabbed Juriac's wrists, proceeding to pull the man's torso over his shoulder, and moved his hands to the back of the man's knees. Slowly, staggering slightly under the weight, he rose to his feet.
"Are you sure you don't just want to levitate him, Draco?" Ginny asked uncertainly. Draco scoffed at her.
"Are you saying you think me weak?"
"No," replied Ginny quickly as they moved towards the door. "But you don't want to waste your energy."
"I'm fine," Draco said. "Levitating him through this house would be too difficult; there are too may narrow hallways and turns."
Ginny shrugged and started down the stairs. Draco went more slowly and though once or twice he thought he was going to fall, he made it down the stairs safely. The two teenagers then weaved their way through the house and back into the basement.
Before they started back into the tunnel, Draco turned around and looked into the room once more; Carl was gone, and Draco didn't like his sudden disappearance. Either the thing –what had Juriac called it? A Cusderm?– had decided once Juriac was captured that it wasn't safe to stick around, or maybe it was lying in wait for them, ready to ambush. Draco would've liked to believe the former, but the latter was more likely to happen.
So as they cautiously walked through the tunnel, Ginny providing light enough for them to see, Draco kept a close eye out for Carl. However, to his enormous relief, he didn't spot the creature anywhere, and they made it safely back into the cavern without any disturbance. Oleaney Juriac was getting heavy on Draco's shoulders, though.
They made it through the cavern and were just entering the tunnel that led up to Hogwarts when the trouble came.
Since his shoulders and back were aching something fierce by now, Draco set Oleaney on the ground and was about to levitate him when he heard a noise from across the cavern, near the tunnel that they'd come out of a few minutes earlier. Ginny heard the noise too, which, later on, Draco would conclude to have been some rocks tumbling from the overhang.
He and Ginny turned around, and what Draco saw, rendered him speechless. Coming closer, yet still oblivious to Draco and Ginny, was Lucius Malfoy.
Draco stood there blankly, watching his father edge down the overhang tentatively. The only thing going through his mind was why his father was down here, of all possible places. Draco was too stunned to contemplate an answer though. It seemed Ginny was wondering similar things, for she asked, "What is he doing here?"
This question brought to Draco's mind all of his fears of the past months, the fear that his father would find out about Ginny. And here she was…and here Lucius was. Chills traveled down his spine. He had to get Ginny and Oleaney out of here before Lucius found them.
Draco grabbed Ginny and pulled her down to the ground, crouching low himself. "Ginny, levitate Juriac and go back up to the school to Dumbledore. Tell him everything, all that we've been doing down here since the start of the year, and tell him about Reina and what she said."
"But what –"
"No, Ginny, don't argue with me now," Draco said impatiently. He glanced back into the cavern. Lucius was now on the ground and making his way towards them, though he was going slowly, taking in all of his surroundings. "Just go."
"You're not going to him, are you?" Ginny asked incredulously. "Draco, he might kill you."
"He's had seventeen years to kill me," Draco said, shrugging. "He won't do it now, especially not when he hopes to give me to Voldemort. I'll be fine. But we've talked about what will happen if he finds you with me. Go."
Ginny looked at Lucius nervously before back at Draco. For a moment, he thought she was going to protest, but then she nodded stiffly. "Okay." Her voice was small, scared. Draco knew for a fact that he wouldn't die. If his theory was correct, he was wearing Oleaney Juriac's wedding ring; as long as he was still wearing it, which he was, then he wouldn't die. Draco regretted not telling Ginny this earlier, but he didn't have time to explain now.
Trying to assuage Ginny's fear the only way he knew how, Draco pulled her into his arms and kissed her tenderly. Her arms wrapped tightly around him; she didn't seem to want to part from him, but Draco knew that soon, Lucius would be able to see them. As gently as he could, he leaned back from her and she looked up at him wistfully, her lips parted.
"I'll come back to you. I promise," Draco said. Ginny nodded. "Now go."
Quietly Ginny stood and levitated their professor and disappeared into the tunnel. Once he was sure that they were out of sight, Draco stood and stepped into the cavern, walking down the rocky slope until he knew Lucius could see him.
Sometimes
Slowly
Time brings revelation
There was an air of deathly calm about Draco now; he wasn't frightened as he knew he should be. A sense of determination swept through him. If Lucius wanted a fight, then he would get one. If he wanted compliance, then he should look elsewhere.
Lucius stiffened, Draco saw. A delirious pleasure came from the depths of his soul. All the years of his father threatening him, torturing him, taking away his childhood and all that was entitled to him came back to Draco. It was time for his revenge, for him to take what was his.
As Draco stepped down the embankment towards his father, who stood near the water's edge, he drew his wand. Lucius already had his out.
"Hello, Father," Draco said. "What brings you down here?"
"You," Lucius replied, equally calm. "I looked for you in your room but you weren't there."
"So you thought the next best place to look would be in a hidden tunnel under the school?" Draco asked. He looked around the cavern skeptically. "Nice choice."
"Do not disrespect your betters," Lucius said, traces of anger seeping through his voice.
Draco laughed cruelly. "That is one of the most untrue things you've ever said. You are not better than me."
"And I suppose you think you are a saint, Draco?" Lucius's lip curled.
"No," Draco replied, shaking his head, a soft smile playing about his lips. He didn't take his eyes off of his father. "And that is what makes me so different from you. You think that you are some god, but I know that I am not. I know what you really are."
"And that is…?" Lucius asked, lifting his hand, beckoning for Draco to continue. "Please enlighten me."
Waiting
Softly
For someone to believe
"Well, the main difference between you and me is simple," Draco stated. He walked down the rest of the slope until he was on even ground with his father, standing twenty feet apart. "You work for someone who cares nothing about you, who wouldn't give a damn if you dropped dead. I work for no one and am therefore free. You hear that, Lucius? I'm free."
"You'll never be free," Lucius whispered so softly, Draco almost didn't hear him. "You belong to me, and soon, you will belong to the Dark Lord. And when we are fighting side-by-side, you and I… father and son, you will turn to me on your knees and thank me for all that I've given up for you, for all that I've sacrificed," Lucius snarled, "for you to get to the top!"
"Sacrificed?" Draco asked disbelievingly, taking an angry step forward. "The only thing you ever sacrificed is a son! The second you decided to give me to him, you gave me up. Maybe I didn't know it yet, maybe I didn't realize it then, but I do now. What is there worth fighting for on your side? Death? Betrayal? Some ancient belief that we are better than someone else just because we have better ancestry? No!"
"You don't know what you're saying, boy," Lucius said.
"I'm not a boy!" Draco snapped, incensed.
"Yes you are! You are nothing, Draco! I've told you time and time again! You are an immature boy who can't see a good thing when it slaps him in the face." Rage poured throughout Draco as he listened to his father, but before he could retaliate, Lucius continued.
"If you think you can just switch sides, then you are mistaken. Nobody will take in the son of a Death Eater. Nobody will believe that you have truly turned on us." Lucius shook his head, his mouth contorting angrily at his own declaration. "You have done too much wrong for redemption. You can't turn to them anymore! You think they really want you anyway? No! You would just be some tool, some way for them to spy on us. You would never be treated as an equal, Draco. They would always be looking at you, waiting for the moment when you would finally turn and betray them as well! Just like you betrayed us! No, Draco," Lucius wetted his lips, looking at Draco manically. "You can't possibly believe that they want you. You are and always will be one of us. It's in your blood. They know that, I know that, and you know that. You are just deceiving yourself thinking you can be anything different. It's time for you to join us fully now. You've been given a taste of the great things you will be doing; aren't you hungry for more?"
Draco thought of the Grant family, of the young boy Aidan whom Draco had killed himself. He bit his tongue, trying to keep back a bombardment of memories and hatred that had nothing to do with Lucius. Draco had spent many hours trying to put that night behind him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget the desperate look of a boy silently pleading for mercy, and he couldn't ignore the cowardly way he had pushed that look aside and done what his father and Voldemort wanted anyway.
That the ghosts we've hidden or left to die
Have now arisen and will arrive
To say what has happened
Say what has happened
Say what has happened
To me
Draco shook his head, whether against the memories or against what his father was saying, he didn't know.
"You're wrong," he said hoarsely. "If you think that one night is enough to make me go to your side, then you are wrong."
"Draco," Lucius said, starting towards Draco, "it is time for you to become who you were always meant to be."
"No," Draco replied resolutely, standing his ground. "I will not go to you. I will fight you and then I will take my mother and I will hide her again so that you will never find her. You will never find either her or me. You will never hurt either one of us again."
It was as if Lucius had turned to stone. He froze, staring with unmasked hatred at his son. Draco felt a rugged satisfaction that he had tricked his father thus. He betrayed none of these feelings on the outside, but inwardly, he felt as if he had just won a small but important battle.
"You…" Lucius snarled, coming towards Draco now with a fierce determination.
Draco was ready. He raised his wand and shouted, "Impedimenta!"
Lucius was ready as well. He easily blocked the spell and countered with one of his own. Draco could feel the dark curse as it came towards him. He could feel the vileness that radiated off of it. He was glad when he blocked it, glad that he wouldn't get the chance to know what it would have done.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Protego!" Draco shouted. The shield held; however, Draco could feel it quiver before it died completely, Lucius's curse ricocheting off somewhere in the cavern.
Lucius twirled his wand and pointed it back at Draco. "Circum cumvinculum!"
Draco's shield did not survive this curse. He felt tight bonds slide up his wrists and wrap around his torso, sealing his arms to his sides. He struggled against the ropes, but they were too strong. Lucius looked victorious. Draco willed the ropes covering his shoulders to his wrists to disappear, but nothing happened. His wand was still clutched in his hand, pointing straight at the ground from the position his arms were in; it did him no good.
Straining as much as he could, anxiously noting that his father was coming towards him, Draco twirled his wand until it was pointing up at the ropes. "Reducto," he said hurriedly. Lucius stopped and growled impatiently.
Draco brushed the now limp bonds to the ground, but before he could gain his bearings, Lucius hit him with a curse that caused Draco to rise up and tumble through the air over Lucius's head, slamming painfully into the rock wall of the cavern and sliding to the ground. Draco groaned, his eyes closed against the pain coursing throughout his body.
Warily he opened his eyes, looking about for his father. He saw Lucius stalking towards him purposefully. Draco stumbled to his feet, wincing slightly, and tried to brace himself. Before Lucius could curse him again, Draco shouted, "Aegrotatio!"
Instantly Lucius dropped to his knees, his hands clutching at his throat. Draco didn't care if the sickness curse was killing his father; from the depths of his soul, Draco just didn't care. Lucius looked up at Draco, his eyes pleading.
"Son," he choked out, but he closed his eyes in pain, his mouth gaping. Draco stood over his father, staring down at him with hatred. This man had caused so much pain in his life, so much suffering. Why shouldn't Draco just kill him? The world would certainly be better without Lucius Malfoy. But staring down at his father's helpless figure, Draco couldn't bring himself to do it. The pain that killing Aidan Grant had caused Draco was too great and too recent for him to wish it upon himself again, even if it was because of his father.
"Finite Incantatem," Draco said softly, lowering his wand. Lucius collapsed on his side, gasping for breath, his face sweating and pale. With each rise and fall of his father's chest, something thumped inside Draco. What was that? Was it pride? Happiness? No, Draco wasn't happy his father was alive. He was just glad he hadn't killed him.
Satisfaction…
Then overwhelming pain enveloped Draco and he fell to the ground. During his thoughts, he hadn't noticed Lucius stagger to his feet and place the Cruciatus curse on him.
Draco clenched his teeth, willing himself not to scream. His insides rattled, protesting the assault, but it did no good. To Draco, his life was ending one excruciating wave of pain at a time. He was aware that his body was convulsing, that he was shaking so badly that he jerked off the ground completely a time or two, but Draco couldn't see the way his father was laughing hysterically above him, couldn't see the mad glint in his eye at seeing the pain he was causing, couldn't see how much pleasure his father was getting from this. But Draco didn't need to see it. He already knew it, could feel it.
The pain doubled, if that was possible, and Draco couldn't stop a harsh scream escaping from his throat. It reverberated throughout the cavern, bouncing off the walls and coming back to circle around Draco, teasing him. He hoped with all his might that Ginny was out of the tunnel now and couldn't hear him; it would drive her crazy to hear this.
And then the pain disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Draco lay in a mess on the ground, his entire body twitching. He looked up through bleary eyes and saw Lucius looking down at him.
"You've lost, Draco," Lucius said. He wetted his lips in satisfaction. "You've lost."
"No," Draco replied, his voice cracking. "I've won."
Lucius shook his head as if Draco's words were amusing. "You only think you have. I see that you have made your choice. Now I am going to make mine."
Draco knew it was coming even as Lucius raised his wand. He struggled to his feet once again, knowing that he wanted to defy his father one last time and die standing, die fighting.
The victory belonged to Draco already. Lucius could curse Draco until he was black and blue, but Draco wouldn't die. Later on down the road, Draco would relish the look in his father's eyes when he realized that his son was still alive, but for now, Draco would play along.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was only a speck of apprehension in Draco as the killing curse that so far only one person had survived hit him in the chest. What if Draco was wrong? What if the ring didn't work?
Draco needn't have worried though, for though he fell to the ground, he was still very much alive. It was a strange sensation, really. His eyes were closed, mouth parted, seemingly dead. Even if Draco wanted to open his eyes and stand up, he wouldn't have been able to. His body felt more tired than it ever had, his eye lids so heavy he didn't think he'd ever be able to open them.
Almost as if he were in a dream, he heard his father laugh victoriously above him. Draco let his hand relax and his wand rolled limply from his fingers.
"You're wrong once again, Draco," Lucius said softly. "I did win."
Then Draco heard a swish of robes as his father turned around and walked away. What felt like hours went by, though in reality, only a few minutes passed. Then Draco heard feet running.
"No!" a voice screamed. "Draco! No!"
It was Ginny. Draco wanted to sit up and reassure her that he was alright, but he couldn't seem to move at all.
"Draco," sobbed Ginny, crashing to her knees beside him. He felt her hands grab his face and lift it towards her. "Wake up," she cried. She shook him. "Wake up." Draco didn't move. Ginny ran her hand gently over his eyes, across his forehead, down the side of his cheek, trembling as they came to rest over his lips.
For a moment, there was only Ginny's ragged, uneven breathing as she waited for some response from Draco, some indication that he was still alive. But none came. Draco felt her body start wracking with uncontrollable sobs and she leaned over him, burying his face in her neck. Her warm tears fell down the side of his face and Draco felt his heart breaking alongside hers. One of the reasons he defied his father, continued to defy him with every breath he was now taking, was cradling him, crying for him. Ginny was his reason, was his everything.
And who would have thought
That you'd be the one
That I would have found here waiting
"No, Draco," Ginny lamented, "you can't be dead. You promised me you'd come back. You promised –" she broke off, hiccoughing for breath. Draco wanted to reach up and hold her, comfort her.
Ever so slightly, the tip of his finger bent. Yes, he thought excitedly. The rest of that finger, followed by the rest, curved into the palm of his hand. He made a fist on the ground behind Ginny, though his hand relaxed again in seconds, too weak to continue.
He tried his eyes next. Slowly, ever so agonizingly slowly, they both cracked open to see a sea of red. Ginny's hair had slipped over her shoulders, shielding his face. He could see the top of her neck, right near her ear. One of her hands was cradling the back of his head and the other was pressed flat in between his shoulder blades, holding him as near her as possible.
"Ginny." The name escaped through his lips like a passing breath, barely perceptible. But Ginny heard him. She stiffened for a second, and then her head rose hesitantly. Her bloodshot eyes looked down at him disbelievingly. She said not a word.
"Ginny," Draco repeated, smiling weakly.
"Draco?" she squeaked. The corners of her lips rose tentatively, a small, grateful laugh coming out before she looked back at him as if expecting him to die again.
With a strength that Draco didn't know he was capable of at the moment, he reached up with his hand and clasped at his shirt. He groaned with the effort, but in the end, he pulled out a silver chain from which dangled a very special ring.
Lost in this night
Until you arrived
And always too blind to see
"This ring saved my life," Draco said slowly.
Ginny looked confused. "I – I don't…I don't under…stand," Ginny stammered, astonished.
"There's something I didn't tell you," Draco said, closing his eyes briefly over the wave of exhaustion he felt.
"Oh what I wouldn't give for a strengthening solution right now," muttered Ginny.
Draco grinned weakly. "I didn't tell you earlier, but this ring, Oleaney's wedding ring, had a protection spell placed on it by his wife. As long as he was wearing it, he couldn't die. And then he gave it to Reina…" Draco trailed off, breathing heavily again.
"And so when he gave it to her, and then he never came back," Ginny theorized, "she thought he was really dead. And then you were wearing the ring and that's why you didn't die."
"You're smart," Draco grinned, his eyes still closed.
Ginny cleared her throat. "Of course I am. I'm with you, aren't I?"
Draco opened his eyes. "Yeah." He looked at her, glad that he was able to have this moment, this memory of himself being cradled in her arms. "Yeah, you're real smart."
Ginny looked down at him lovingly. Slowly, she bent over and pressed her lips against his as if an ethereal wisp of air, so lightly that Draco barely registered it before she rose to her feet. It was so gentle, so quick, so different from their other kisses, yet so passionate that Draco was fervently glad that he had plenty more time to return the sentiment.
And who would have thought
That after this time
That I'd be the one you're saving
On the way back up the tunnel, Draco leaned heavily against Ginny, still tired from his ordeal. However, with each step he took, he felt a bit of his strength return, aided by the now-proven fact that he was better than his father.
Lucius had had seventeen years to kill Draco, and when the perfect opportunity had arisen this night, he had taken it. However, when Draco had that same opportunity to kill his father, he had not taken it. Draco realized with a burst of pride that he had been greater than his father, that he had proven the stronger man. Lucius didn't realize it, but Draco did.
And that helped him realize another thing, that he never wanted Lucius to question his loyalty again. He wanted to show his father that he meant exactly what he had said to him. Draco knew he never wanted to be like his father. Earlier in his life he thought he had, but now he knew better. That life might have been meant for him, but Draco was changing his destiny.
No more would he have to wait in anxiety for the next attack from his father, wait for the next lecture about the duties of a Death Eater. No, that part of Draco's life was gone forever.
Now undisguised
The ghosts that survive
Now say what was meant to be
Draco bent over and with difficulty, wrenched the stone from the ground for what he hoped was the last time. With a gust of wind, the tunnel transformed back to its prior state, and Ginny and Draco continued on, Oleaney Juriac floating still unconscious behind them.
When they reached the door that led to the school, they found it cracked open, obviously from when Lucius had come into the tunnel. Draco still wondered exactly how his father had gotten down there. He believed what Lucius had said about looking for him in Draco's room; his father had probably come to bring Draco home early and start his training. And if he hadn't found him there, he might have been walking through the dungeons and seen the door open and gone through, thus discovering the tunnel and cavern, but how far had he gone? He had come out of the tunnel leading towards Juriac's house, so had he been in there while Draco and Ginny had? Draco didn't know, and doubted whether he ever would, but that's what he chose to believe.
They walked through the halls towards Professor Dumbledore's office, hoping he would be in there. Unfortunately, they passed quite a few students in the hallways. Those that saw them stared, whether in astonishment that a Malfoy and Weasley were walking together or because their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was floating unconscious behind them, Draco could only imagine.
When they did reach the stone gargoyle, Draco quickly muttered the password and the three of them piled onto the stone staircase. Ginny took the levitation spell off of Juriac and Draco, now feeling almost back to normal, slung him over his shoulders again, the staircase being too narrow and levitate him any longer.
Draco braced himself as Ginny knocked on the door. When he stepped into that room, something new in his life was going to start. He and Ginny would be bombarded with questions. His world as he knew it would officially be over.
I never wanted to give my life away
Who ever thought it would matter anyway
"Please come in," came Dumbledore's cheerful voice. Draco heard Ginny take a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh before she opened the door and walked in, Draco carrying Oleaney Juriac following.
Draco saw that Professor McGonagall was in the room talking with Dumbledore. She rose from her seat in alarm when she saw who was coming in. "Mr. Malfoy – Miss Weasley – what in Merlin's name –"
"What is going on?" Dumbledore asked gravely, looking back and forth between Ginny and Draco. Draco shifted on his feet, wondering how to begin. First off, though, he set Juriac on the floor as gently as possible; his body was starting to tire again.
"Well, Sir," began Ginny, "back in the beginning of the year, right after Albert Harding disappeared…"
And so Ginny, with the help of Draco, told the whole story. Well, an edited version of the whole story anyway. They left out parts such as their relationship and all that had transpired with Draco, his mother, and his father, instead starting with how they had teamed up together and had been searching throughout the year for the culprit and how they had discovered the tunnel. They told about their many trips down there. They told of how they had given up of ever solving the mystery.
Then Draco recounted the conversation he had had with Reina earlier that afternoon. All throughout their story, both Dumbledore and McGonagall had remained quiet, only interrupting with an occasional short question. At the mention of what Reina had told Draco, however, Dumbledore spoke.
"She said that Oleaney was dead?" he asked, frowning.
"Yes," Draco remarked. "She still thinks he's dead."
All throughout their narrative, Oleaney Juriac had remained unconscious. Dumbledore had, however, conjured a couch and placed him upon it when he found out that Juriac was merely stunned and not injured. Now Dumbledore turned towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher more closely. He bent over the man and peered at him.
For several minutes, Dumbledore just stared at him. Draco had a sneaking suspicion that he was performing some sort of occlumency. After a while, he straightened and turned to McGonagall with a sigh.
"Minerva, please go to the Owlry and send a note to Reina Juriac instructing her to come up to the school to my office at once."
Professor McGonagall nodded, gave one sharp glance at Draco and Ginny, and left the room. Draco looked at Ginny nervously, who was sitting in a chair next to him. She glanced back at him and shrugged before looking down at her feet.
Draco looked back at Dumbledore, who appeared as if he had forgotten that Draco and Ginny were in the room with him. He was kneeling next to Juriac, the tip of his wand pressed against Juriac's temple. Dumbledore's eyes were closed and his lips were moving though Draco couldn't hear what was being said. He had a feeling that something important was happening.
Then the door opened and Professor McGonagall came walking back in. "The letter is sent, Albus," she exclaimed, looking at the kneeling Professor Dumbledore, who didn't acknowledge her. Seeing that Dumbledore was busy, McGonagall sat in her seat again and looked at Draco and Ginny. "I'm sure she'll be here soon."
Draco didn't have to ask who "she" was. They all knew who McGonagall was talking about.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley," she began, sitting back as if preparing for another long conversation, "it seems as if the two of you are more friendly towards each other than you used to be. Is anything…else going on that you haven't mentioned yet?"
Draco smiled uncertainly.
Wandering inside this night
Finding pieces of a life
Never sure I'd ever know what it means
"Um," began Ginny nervously, glancing at Draco. "Well, you – you see, Professor, Draco and I –"
"Are dating," Draco said bluntly, smirking at his Transfiguration teacher, whom Draco was very pleased to see drop her jaw in shock. He grabbed Ginny's hand for emphasis.
"D-dat-dating?" McGonagall stammered. "Dating?" she asked more incredulously, her eyebrows rising and furrowing repeatedly. Oh how Draco was enjoying this moment.
"Yup," Draco sighed with pleasure. He liked how that sounded, actually. Glancing over at Ginny, he saw that she was looking at her teacher with what appeared to be a "Yes, I'm afraid it is true, and I'm sorry that you feel I've betrayed Gryffindor, but I'm very happy" look. He squeezed Ginny's hand, smirking happily.
Before McGonagall could quite get over her shock, Dumbledore rose to his feet. "Well, I've fixed him," he said, sighing.
"Fixed him?" Ginny asked worriedly. "Did we do something to him? Did we hurt him?"
"No, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said gently. "You saved him. From himself."
"What are you talking about?" Draco inquired excitedly.
"Well now I know what was wrong with Oleaney, but I will wait until his sister gets here and let him explain it in detail. But basically, he was tortured into insanity. Temporary insanity, that is. You see, the mind can sustain only so much pain," Dumbledore explained. "When it has had enough, the mind can do several things. It can tell the body that it has had enough and the body will simply stop functioning, therefore causing its owner to die. It can stop working properly, causing permanent damage, as was the case with several of our best aurors years earlier. Or, the mind can create a block, a mental wall, if you will. It blocks out anything that it doesn't wish to experience, such as bad memories, pain, and its whole life. The latter was the case in Mr. Juriac here. But I have broken down that wall and in a moment I will waken him. He should remember everything…everything he had forgotten, and everything that he has done since that wall went up."
I. Was. Right! Draco thought triumphantly. He had been close to figuring out the truth earlier that day in Reina's kitchen, but now he knew what had happened. Now curiosity for details was eating at him. He watched with bated breath as his headmaster wakened Oleaney.
At first Oleaney Juriac sat up slowly, taking in his surroundings. He blinked a few times and shook his head as if to get rid of some annoying fly. He looked at Dumbledore, then at McGonagall, and then finally at Draco and Ginny. His eyes widened when he saw them. For a full ten seconds the three just stared at each other, and then Juriac looked back at Dumbledore.
"What happened?" he asked shakily. "Why do I feel so…old?"
Before Dumbledore could answer, there was a knock at the door. Draco's heart beat faster in excitement. Dumbledore gave permission for the person to come in. Reina Juriac entered the room and halted, her eyes on her brother.
It's the strangers in your life
That you'd never thought you'd meet
It's the hand that picked you up
When you're laying in the street
"Oleaney?" Reina faltered.
"Reina," Oleaney replied, standing. He blinked as if he didn't know how he had gotten in the room. "My…sister."
Reina gave a short cry before she closed the space between her and Oleaney and hugged him tightly. Oleaney wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes, a few tears leaking from them. When they parted, Draco could see that Reina had more than just a few tears in her eyes. Her whole face was wet with sorrowful joy.
"How can this be?" she asked breathlessly. "You died. I was sure of it."
"I didn't," reasoned Oleaney with a sigh. He sat down on the couch and Reina was quick to follow. "I didn't…Oh, Merlin, this is a long story."
"Why don't you start from the beginning," Dumbledore said gently. Both Juriacs looked up at the headmaster, one reminded of his presence and one just realizing it.
"A-Albus Dumbledore?" Reina asked. Dumbledore nodded.
"Hello, Miss Juriac," smiled Dumbledore. "It is good to see you again. It has been too long."
Reina nodded slowly, looking back at her brother. "The beginning, then, Oleaney?" she asked. "There are many questions I need answered myself."
"Yes, yes, the beginning," Oleaney decided. "The beginning." He sighed deeply before he began. He scratched his head, thinking back. "Well, my family is originally from the United States of America. We moved here when Reina and I were eleven or twelve, I can't remember which."
"It was when we were twelve," Reina affirmed.
"We're twins; did you know that?" inquired Oleaney. Everybody else, minus McGonagall, nodded. "Well…" continued Oleaney. "Our family is pureblood and our parents were very proud of that. Our ancestry went way back. But back in America at the school we went to, Rosings Academy, Reina didn't pick up on the magic as quickly as I did. My parents got discouraged and moved us here after hearing so much about Hogwarts."
Dumbledore nodded knowingly.
"But even here Reina didn't progress like everybody else did," Oleaney said quietly, looking at his sister.
"It was the squib in me starting to show," Reina said lightly, not caring in the slightest. "I dropped out of Hogwarts in my first year and lived at home. My parents were devastated. They didn't seem to want to accept the fact that I wasn't magical like they were. While Oleaney was at school," Reina sighed, "my parents hired magical tutors, people who specialized in bringing out the magic in squibs, but nothing worked. After a year, my parents finally decided that I'd never amount to much. I think most of their love for me disappeared then."
Draco saw Ginny looking compassionately at Reina. Reina caught her look and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, chicky, they weren't anybody worth wishing the love from anyway."
"No they weren't," Oleaney exhorted. Draco looked back at the man. "While I was away at Hogwarts all year, they started dealing in the dark arts. Back in America, there weren't any Death Eaters and there wasn't any Voldemort. We heard about him, of course; we heard about him and his doings every day in the news. But it was different when we moved here."
"Right after we did get here, my parents bought a house in Norfolk," Reina added. "They were always very rich, and at first I thought they were just looking into the Death Eaters because they were bored. But then they got serious."
"I came home one Christmas in my second year and found them in the middle of some meeting," Oleaney said. "There were maybe ten Death Eaters in our house; Reina was hiding up in her room, and that's where I stayed too that night. But from then on, we never trusted our parents again. They were complete strangers to us, especially Reina. Me, on the other hand," he said with not a trace of pride, "they still treated like a son. They hoped that one day I would join them, something I vowed never to do."
Draco looked at his teacher with a new-found respect. He sounded exactly like Draco felt regarding Lucius.
"But for all of my time at Hogwarts, nothing too drastic happened with my parents," Oleaney said, a sad shadow falling over his face. "I fell in love…"
Reina looked down at her lap, and Draco felt unexpected compassion reaching out towards both her and her brother.
"I fell in love with a wonderful girl," Oleaney continued. "She was my Hogwarts sweetheart, always was. Right after graduation, right after I turned eighteen, I married Felicity Bell, thus turning her into Felicity Juriac." A soft, loving look came upon him; he looked years younger than he was.
"Our parents attended the wedding," Reina divulged. "They were sullen and distant though; they disapproved of the whole thing. They wanted Oleaney to join them. By that time, our parents were deep within Voldemort's ranks. After the wedding, they disappeared and ignored us altogether, something neither of us regretted. Up until then, I had been living at home, trying to stay out of their way. When Oleaney got married and moved away, I moved out too. I opened my shop and worked there ever since."
"And that's when our story, the one that leads us to right here, really started," Oleaney informed them. Reina nodded silently. "Felicity…Felicity died…" Oleaney addressed the room quietly. "It was a year after we had gotten married and she was pregnant with our first child, but it came too early. They both died." Tears came to his eyes and he put his face in his hands, shaking his head sadly.
Ginny grabbed Draco's hand and squeezed it. The action, which to another would have appeared to be an action of comfort for Draco, was in actuality to comfort Ginny herself; Draco rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb reassuringly as she stared at the twins before her. Draco heard Ginny sniff back a few of her own tears.
"After that," continued Oleaney with a sigh, "I was too distraught to do much. I got it into my head that I wanted to try to sway my parents away from Voldemort, to make them turn back into the parents they used to be."
"And a stupid thing for you to think of, it was," Reina scolded. "Look where it landed us! Twenty-eight years of me thinking that you're dead and twenty-eight years of you…you being off somewhere, gallivanting about, not coming to see me," she turned away, folding her arms across her chest. She huffed angrily.
"Reina," Oleaney pleaded, "let me explain. Now that I know the whole story, I can tell you. Trust me, there was a good reason I didn't come back."
Reina turned back to her brother. "I'm not mad," she admitted. "Frustrated, I guess."
"Me too," Oleaney said. "I missed seeing you get old."
At Reina's indignant face, Dumbledore coughed politely.
Oleaney looked back at the headmaster and smiled softly. "Right," he said. "Back to the story. So that night I went to Reina's," Oleaney said. "I told her that I was going to save our parents. And so I Apparated to their house."
It's the hand that cut you down
It's the dream that someone shared
When you thought that all was lost
It's the friend that wasn't there
Reina sat forward expectantly; even she did not know the rest of the story.
"They were in full Death Eater uniform," said Oleaney. "It turns out I went to them right when they were about to leave. Voldemort had just summoned them as well as many other Death Eaters for a meeting. I talked with them for a while, tried to convince them to not go, to give Voldemort up. They kept insisting that they had to go or he'd be angry with them. But I wouldn't let them go.
"My father, Quentin Juriac, was a stubborn man," Oleaney noted. "He refused to listen to my reasoning. He said that they had finally found where they belonged and that I had to accept it, that they had accepted my choice to not join them. I don't think they ever meant any harm towards me," He frowned. "And my mother, Zariah…she just kept saying 'Let's go, come on, let's go, Quentin. We're already late and it's burning more; he's mad, I can tell, come on, let's go.'"
Oleaney shook his head sadly. "They were seconds from Apparating, I guess, but I didn't know it. I grabbed my father's arm right before they disappeared and I ended up side-along Apparating with them. Then I started to realize what a mistake it had all been, my going to my parents. I was in a graveyard, and it was dark, cold," he said, staring at the floor.
"They were all there, Voldemort and more Death Eaters than I had ever seen. They were all watching us. Voldemort punished my parents for being late, tortured them. When he was done, they sunk into the crowd and pulled their masks over their faces, became one of the others. But he was curious about me. He found out that I was their son and that my coming was an accident. Then he got mad. He tortured me, first some curses I had never heard of, and then the Cruciatus. It felt like he kept it on me for hours.
"Then he took it off, and I saw them all Disapparating right before me eyes. I don't know if they thought I was dead or if they knew that I was going insane, but they left me there." Oleaney shook his head at the memory. "They just left. I was lying there, I could feel myself losing it, and the last thing I remember was seeing the masks off of my parents, saw them looking down at me. I didn't see any pity or sorrow or regret; they just looked at me blankly. Then they left and I fell unconscious.
"And when I woke up," Oleaney continued, "it was like I was someone else. I didn't remember how I got in a graveyard, I didn't remember my parents being Death Eaters, I didn't remember my sister, I didn't remember any of it. So I ran. Even now the years I spent out there, I don't really remember what I did. But I know that a year ago I came here to Hogwarts; something about it seemed familiar so I came. Dumbledore was hiring. I was looking for a job. It all worked out. And then…" he frowned. "Oh Merlin…"
His eyes widened as he covered his mouth with a hand. "I took all those students…I did – I did all those things. I remember now. I –" he broke off. "Oh Merlin," He repeated.
"Never mind what you did in your crazed state, Oleaney," Dumbledore spoke. "That is behind you; no real harm was done. Thanks to Mr. Malfoy's and Miss Weasley's sleuthing, everything has been set right."
Oleaney looked at Draco and Ginny. "I did so many things wrong," he said.
"Don't worry about it, Oleaney," Reina said sternly. "You and I, I think, will take a vacation, and we can fill each other in on what happened."
Oleaney nodded. "Wait – what happened to our parents?"
"They're dead," Reina announced without a bit of remorse. "A few months after you went after them, they were caught by aurors who tried to bring them to Azkaban. They put up a fight and were killed."
"Oh," Oleaney exclaimed softly.
"Can I ask a question?" Ginny asked nervously.
Oleaney looked at her. "Sure," he said.
"Well," began Ginny, "Sir, where was that house that we found you in? And the tunnel? What are those doing there?"
"The house, now that I think of it," Oleaney explained, "is where I spent all those years. "It was on the outskirts of Hogsmede. I don't know how the tunnel was formed. I discovered that it ran to the school after I had started working there."
"Oh," replied Ginny.
"But why did you take the students?" Draco asked. McGonagall looked at him sharply.
"Mr. Malfoy, I thought the headmaster said that we were not going to question Mr. Juriac about his –"
"No, no, I can answer that," Oleaney said. "I don't understand the reasoning behind it anymore, not now that I'm…normal again, but I'll explain the best that I can. But you have to understand, back then I didn't think rationally. I thought that what I was doing was completely normal. I liked to…experiment down there in my house. That's what all those cauldrons and potions and books were, stuff for my experiments. And when I was at the school, I thought of a new one, a big one. Clones."
"Clones?" Draco asked. "Like what you did when Ginny and I were up there? How you looked like me?"
"That was just a spell," Oleaney said. "I wanted to create real live clones, whole people that were completely independent. I…I suppose what I was thinking is that I had this box, yeah? And I had a book that was explaining how it was supposed to work. Now I guess that book was just bollocks, but at the time I believed it. It said if I put DNA of the person I wanted to clone in it, along with the proper potion, it would create the clone. So I tried cloning myself first, and it didn't work. I thought that maybe I was too old, so I decided to try someone younger, a student."
"So you took Albert Harding," Draco said.
Oleaney hesitated. "Yes," he said at last. "He didn't work either. So I tried Trent Johnson. Again, nothing happened. I thought maybe I was going too young, so I tried a seventh year, Neville Longbottom. He was quite an interesting fellow.
"But he didn't work either and I started to despair. I didn't return Neville right away because he was fun company. Then I thought that maybe I was going all wrong with trying to clone males. I went for a female."
"Pansy," Draco hissed.
"Yes," Oleaney stated. "Pansy Parkinson." He shivered. "That was one of the most unfortunate things I ever did was take her. She didn't work either, so I returned her and Mr. Longbottom. I gave up on that experiment and stopped taking the students, preferring to go back to my old, smaller experiments."
Oleaney finished talking with another sad sigh, thinking back to all he had done. Draco just had one more thing he needed answered.
"And that thing under the tunnel? That thing you call Carl? What is that?"
"Hmm, Carl?" Oleaney asked, looking at Draco. "Ah, yes, Carl…now I remember him. I believe I told you he was a Cusderm."
"Yeah, what is that?" Ginny asked.
"It means 'one's own skin,'" said Oleaney. Ginny looked confusedly towards their Transfiguration teacher.
"It is a form of a clone, I suppose," sniffed McGonagall. "You take a part of your skin and mind and form another being, but a different one. You speak to it through your mind and you control it; it listens to your every command. It is linked to your own body."
"Yes, yes," said Oleaney excitedly. "That was Carl. I created him to guard the tunnel so that nobody would discover that house. It worked for a while, but you must have gotten through when he was off duty. I suppose when you knocked me unconscious –by the way, Miss Weasley, I'm pleased to see you remembered how to correctly tell imposters from real people– Carl disappeared. That happens when its creator is injured."
"Will he come back?" Ginny asked.
"No."
"Oh," she said.
Draco looked over at her. She seemed tired. Draco himself was tired too; he had just absorbed a lot of information in a short amount of time. But the tiredness that they felt, Draco was sure, was nothing compared to what Oleaney Juriac had just been through. After all, he had just remembered almost thirty years worth of memories.
"Well, here you are," Draco said, clearing his throat. He pulled out the stone that opened the tunnel under the school and handed it to Professor Dumbledore. "I guess you probably want that."
"Yes," smiled Dumbledore. "Thank you. Miss Weasley, perhaps you can escort Reina and Oleaney to the Hospital Wing where Madame Pomfrey can look over him and make sure there is nothing else wrong, and so he can rest." Ginny nodded and stood up. "Reina, you are welcome to stay at Hogwarts with your brother for the night."
"Thank you, Mr. Dumbledore," Reina said, smiling. Draco found that address odd; he had never heard Dumbledore called a Mr. before.
But Draco's focus on Reina disappeared when he heard Ginny give a weak, surprised exclamation before she swayed and started to fall.
"Ginny!" Draco shouted. He leapt out of his seat and caught her by the waist, lowering her unconscious form to the ground as McGonagall and Dumbledore rushed to their side. "Ginny?" Draco asked fearfully, wondering what was happening to her. She moaned as her head rolled to the side, but otherwise she was still.
"What's wrong with her?" Reina inquired anxiously from over Dumbledore's shoulder.
"Miss Weasley?" Dumbledore asked, tapping her cheek. "Ginevra?" He gently pushed Draco out of the way so he could better assess the girl. Draco stared anxiously at Ginny. He silently pleaded for her to wake up, but no matter how strong his resolve, she remained unconscious.
"Is she breathing, Albus?" McGonagall asked fearfully. Dumbledore nodded. "Well perhaps she just got overexcited?" McGonagall pondered. "This was after all quite an eventful way to end exam day."
"It's not the exams," Oleaney said suddenly. Everybody turned to look at him. "Draco, remember the potion?"
Draco had no idea what the man was talking about. "What potion?" he snapped.
"The one up in my attic," Oleaney answered, not ruffled by Draco's impatience. "Remember how I asked you if you had knocked over that cauldron and you said you hadn't? It must have been Ginny. She got into that potion."
"What potion?" Dumbledore demanded.
"It was one I invented," Oleaney said proudly. "It is a variant of the Draught of Living Death, only not quite as strong, I think. It will knock the drinker into a very deep sleep."
"How long does it last?" Draco asked, his heart-rate starting to return to normal once he knew that Ginny would be alright.
"It depends on how much she absorbed," said Oleaney, shrugging his shoulders. "Judging by how little I saw was left in the cauldron, I'd say she'll be out for quite a few hours."
Draco sighed and looked back to Ginny. She did look like she was sleeping; she looked peaceful.
"Well," said Dumbledore, looking at Reina and Oleaney, "I was going to have Miss Weasley show you to the Hospital Wing, but it seems that she needs to be taken there as well. Minerva, would you mind –"
"No, Albus," McGonagall said, standing up. "I'll take them."
"Why can't I go?" Draco asked, watching as his former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher picked up Ginny.
"You and I need to have a talk, Draco," Dumbledore said, his eye twinkling.
Draco eyed his headmaster suspiciously. A talk? He hadn't done anything wrong. He glanced back at McGonagall, Reina, Oleaney, and Ginny as they left the room, and he suddenly remembered something. "Wait," he said, and they turned. "I need to talk to Professor Juriac for a second."
Oleaney looked at Draco and then relinquished Ginny to Professor McGonagall, who levitated the unconscious girl and continued out the door with Reina. "Yes?" He asked.
Draco reached into his shirt and pulled out the silver chain holding Oleaney's ring. "Here," he said, holding both chain and ring out. "This is yours."
For a moment, all Oleaney was able to do was stare at the ring. Draco could almost see years of memories fly past Oleaney's eyes. Draco wished he could give his teacher his wife back, but all he could do was give him the ring she had so lovingly given to him.
With a deep breath, Oleaney stepped forward and took the ring. "Thank you," he said, looking at Draco with misty eyes.
"Thank you, as well, for letting me borrow it," Draco said. "Your sister inadvertently gave it to me, and it saved my life today."
Oleaney smiled sadly and closed his fist tightly around the ring. "Thank you," he said again before he slowly walked out of the room.
When the door had been shut firmly behind them, Dumbledore motioned for Draco to take his seat in front of the headmaster's desk. Draco did, watching as Dumbledore sat in his own seat.
"You've been through a lot in these past few weeks, I can see," Dumbledore said. Draco nodded slowly. "I wonder, have you at all thought about a question I have asked you several times this year?"
Draco sighed.
You can run from all the memory
But never get that far
For in the end they'll find you
For this is who you are
"My mother doesn't live at home anymore, did you know that?" Draco asked, ignoring for the moment his headmaster's question. Dumbledore didn't seem to mind; in fact, he was interested in what Draco was saying.
"Oh?" he asked, leaning forward in his seat. "And how did that come to be?"
"I found out," he said, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice, "that my father had been keeping her under the Imperious Curse since I was born."
Draco expected Dumbledore to say "Hmm," "I see," "Is that so?" or some other polite inquiry, but he didn't expect the words that ended up coming from his headmaster.
"And what happened to you when you found that out?"
Draco frowned, thinking back. He had been angry at his father. He had been surprised and, yes, delighted that his mother did care about him. He had vowed to find a way to save her. "I was…" Draco trailed off, trying to find the right way to express what he was thinking. "I was...angry, upset, confused, happy, sad…" Draco shrugged his shoulders. "Take your pick."
"I see," Dumbledore murmured. "And then what happened?"
"I tried to save her," Draco said. "I tried over Christmas break, but it didn't work. My father caught me right as I was taking her out the front door and she snapped back under the curse. And then later that year I was talking to Ginny, and she suggested bringing my mother to Reina's, thought it was a safe place for her, and so we did. I tried rescuing her again and it worked. My mother has been there ever since."
"And how does Narcissa act when she is free from the Imperious?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"She's normal," Draco remarked. "She likes to talk to me, with me, about me. She acts like a normal mother, like we're a normal family."
"And you like that, yes?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.
Draco thought for a moment and deliberated his answer, for a moment thinking that he was revealing too much information. But then he remembered his father and his resolve strengthened. "Yes," he admitted. "I do like it."
"And your father?" inquired Dumbledore. "What does he think about all of this?"
"He doesn't know."
"That's what I thought."
"He would come to see me sometimes," Draco said. "He came a few times this year, and he always came once or twice every other year."
"I know."
"How?"
"Mr. Malfoy, little goes on in my school that I do not know of." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at him. "What did he want?"
Draco reluctantly said, "The first time he wanted to make sure I was still planning on becoming a Death Eater." Dumbledore stiffened at these words. "After that, he came to see where my mother was. And then this afternoon…"
"What did he want this afternoon?"
Draco paused. "He killed me."
"Pardon?"
"Well," Draco continued, "he tried to. He thinks I'm dead. The ring that I just gave back to Professor Juriac saved me, because his wife had put a protection spell on it. I had it at the time and I couldn't die when he cursed me with the Avada. When Ginny and I were coming back out the tunnel, my father was down there. I sent Ginny and Oleaney back up the tunnel, but she, being the hot-headed girl that she is, didn't listen to me. She stayed at the end of the tunnel and watched while I fought my father. I could have killed him; I had the chance."
"But you didn't," Dumbledore stated.
"No."
"How come?"
"I – I don't know," Draco said uncomfortably. "It didn't seem right."
"But your father has caused you so much pain over the years. He took away your mother," Dumbledore said practically.
"I know that," Draco agreed, his teeth grinding. "But I couldn't kill him."
"Again I ask, how come?"
Draco growled at his professor. Did the man really wish that he had killed Lucius? Draco couldn't tell him the main reason he didn't kill his father. He couldn't tell Dumbledore about killing Aidan Grant, and he couldn't tell him that he had no desire to kill another human being ever again. So he told him the other truth, the one he had already stated. "It didn't seem right."
"Hmm…"
"Well did you want me to kill him?" Draco asked exasperatedly.
"No, not at all."
"So why do you seem so upset that I didn't kill him?"
"Draco, what is your greatest fear?"
Change one note
Change one line
Nothing's going to be the same
Change one loss
Change one cut
Everything is rearranged
"Courage, Draco," Dumbledore said slowly, "is the defining factor of life. It is what separates a man from a boy, good from evil, construction from destruction, success from failure, and ultimately, life from death."Dumbledore watched for Draco's reaction. "Is your greatest fear that you are your father? That you will become your father?"
"Sir," Draco began almost desperately, "my greatest fear is not that I am my father, I suppose, but that I am more than my father ever was." Draco thought back to how he had controlled his hatred when his father had not. He thought to how he had recognized evil when his father had not, turned from it when his father had not.
"Power beyond measure," continued Draco, "uncontrolled and unleashed by itself is much worse than failure or inadequacy. The fact that everything I do, everything I try to accomplish will only be used for evil is so frightening that I'd rather die." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. What was he saying? He sounded ridiculous. But it was true, and deep down, Draco knew that he'd rather be dead than see his father turn him into something evil.
"But if I hold on to what is real and true in life, even if I stand alone in the face of destruction," Draco said carefully, "I will not be brought down. I think that if I keep sight of the greater good, then I will be alright."
"And what is the greater good, Draco?" Dumbledore asked quietly, seriously.
Draco thought for a moment. He thought of his mother. "Defending those who are too weak to defend themselves." He thought of the muggleborns and half-bloods who were killed everyday for no real reason. "Helping those who cannot help themselves." He thought of Ginny and how he cared for her. "Protecting those who cannot protect themselves. Or," he added hastily, remembering her confidence that she could take of her self, "making sure that they stay safe, even if they might be able to protect themselves."
Dumbledore nodded slowly, a satisfied smile coming to his face. "That is what I have waited all year to hear you say," he said, his voice betraying the pride he felt at Draco.
Draco blinked. "What?"
Dumbledore sighed. "Ever since I read your answer to the question from Trelawney's class, I wondered. Everybody fears something. I wanted to know what you were afraid of."
"But why?" Draco asked. He felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"Why?" asked Dumbledore. "Because in light of the war approaching, I need to know whose side you are on. For the past year or so, I have questioned your loyalty to Lucius. You did not seem quite as evil as you were trying to be, and you did not act like your father did when he was your age. I had hope, you see." Dumbledore smiled.
"And whose side do you think I'm on?" Draco asked cautiously.
"I am without a doubt positive that you are not on your father's side," Dumbledore said knowingly. "Everything you just said contradicts everything he is."
"That's true," Draco said. "I guess…I guess what I'm saying is…" he hesitated one more moment before plunging head in. "I'm on your side."
Dumbledore closed his eyes. "Thank you, Draco," he said quietly.
Draco looked down at his lap. Now what? He had just committed himself to Dumbledore. Now what was going to happen to him?
"I can make arrangements for you and your mother to be brought to our headquarters," Dumbledore responded to Draco's unasked question.
"Whose headquarters?" Draco asked.
"Why, the Order's, my boy!" Dumbledore exclaimed happily. "The Order of the Phoenix. There you and your mother will be quite safe, and there you will be able to help us. It would be best, if your father thinks you truly dead, to not go walking about right now. You must keep a low profile."
"Right," Draco said, though he didn't relish the thought of being stuck who knew where with a bunch of Order members. He sighed. "When do I leave?"
"Tonight."
Draco sighed again.
"Don't be so glum about it, Draco," Dumbledore said. "You will get to see Miss Weasley again. Almost her entire family is in the Order."
Draco perked up. Then again, this might not be so bad. "Can I say goodbye to her before I leave?"
"You may," Dumbledore replied. "And now if you will excuse me, I have many things to prepare before this evening arrives. I suggest that you go pack and I will summon you when it is time."
Draco stood, stretching his back as he did so. Before he turned to the door, he looked at his headmaster. "Thank you for everything," he said quite seriously. Dumbledore had offered him a way out. Now Draco didn't have to wake up each morning wondering what he would be doing with his father. Draco had done several things in his lifetime as of yet that were not honorable, were not trustworthy, and were not charitable. But perhaps, with time, might come redemption.
Every act
Cruel or kind
Lost inside our memory
If you look
There in time
"You're welcome, Draco," Dumbledore said sincerely.
Draco turned towards the door. But before he walked out, he said, "And Sir? You won't tell anybody about me and Ginny, will you?"
"My dear boy, I wouldn't dream of it."
Draco grinned.
You'll find it in
Find it in
Find it in
You'll find it in me
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This chapter is dedicated in loving memory to Gunner
R.I.P. buddy…We all miss you
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A/N: This was a hard chapter to write for more reasons than one. This chapter basically resolved everything though. Hopefully there are few if any unanswered questions. If you have any, or are just confused by any part, then just ask and I'll answer you.
I know that sounded like it might be the end of the story, but there is one more chapter left.
The song was This Is Who You Are by the talented and fabulous Trans-Siberian Orchestra, one of my favorite bands ever. I do not own the song or the band, and I do not intend to imply that I do, so please do not sue me. And this song is the reason I changed the title of the story way back. I wanted to put the song in here. Isn't it crazy how well that song fits the story from Draco's point of view? I love it.
And one of my family members and best friends just died early yesterday morning, thus the chapter dedication. His death was very sudden and very unexpected. But I had this chapter ready and thought I'd post it. After all, life does go on, hard as it may be.
Reviews would be much appreciated.
Lauren
